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Claude Sicard
French Jesuit priest and egyptologist (1677–1726) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Father Claude Sicard (1677–1726) was a French Jesuit priest, and an early modern visitor to Egypt, between 1708 and 1712.
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Sicard was a scholar and at the age of 22 was a professor in the seminary at Lyon.[1] He was well educated in Latin, Greek, Coptic and Arabic.[1] He was also skilled in cartography. His aim was to convert Egypt's Coptic Christians to Roman Catholicism.[1]
Sicard was Supervisor of the Jesuit Mission in Cairo. He ate only vegetables and conformed to the Egyptian way of living for nine successive years.[2]
He was the first European to locate Thebes. He identified the ruins of Karnak and Luxor as those of ancient Thebes.[3] Sicard commented that "Its remains are magnificent and more extensive than it is possible to imagine."[1]
Sicard died of plague from nursing the afflicted in 1726.[1]